Time to Reprogram: Hair, Body & Soul

"All these damn toxins!" That's all I keep thinking as I apply beauty products in my daily beauty routine: shower gel, body scrub, lotion, facial moisturizer, deodorant and body mist/perfume. Once upon a time I used to feel a sense of relief once I got to my hair until I started realizing some of my trusted "all natural brands" have went over to the dark side and started putting these not so natural ingredients into their products, but of course, still slapped that lovely natural title all over their bottles and jars.

That's when I thought I'd start making a change. A change that will begin towards the middle of May (I'm thinking May 15) and end 30 days after. I'd like to do a hair and body cleanse. Note: this is not a full detox/cleanse, but more so a way I can ween myself and my body off the habit of wanting to use certain products full of toxins in my daily use.

But before I get to how I plan to do this, I want to talk about why I want to do this in the first place. After all, I'm always reviewing different products on YouTube so why all of a sudden the change of heart? Well, while aboard the Curly Cruise last month, I attended Tonya aka The V Bar Lady's program where she talked about all the harmful toxins that were found in common beauty products that we use daily. She also played a video about toxins found in cosmetic products. I remembered watching that very same video at least six months prior, but at that time, the information, although shocking, fell on death ears. Now that I'm becoming more conscious of what I put into my body, I listened and started taking notes.

Left: Stylist Felicia Leatherwood doing Tonya's hair during her workshop on the cruise. She got a cut and a twist-out. Right: Finished product.

I could begin to mention all the brands and toxins found in beauty products, but that's a whole other post in itself so I'll let you do that research on your own. I will tell you that Tonya mentioned we should do a body cleanse often (I forgot the exact amount of time). I cringed when I heard this because the last time I did one was freshman year of college. And regardless if you're skeptical of that or not, I do know you are supposed to go to the bathroom right after every meal (I learned that from watching Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead), and I definitely don't do that. So I know I needed to make some changes. To make make matters worse, I was aboard a ship that offered every food under the sun for your consumption every single day. And Lord knows I was happily eating everything my little heart desired. So lets start talking about my plan.

I ate balance meals for the most part and tried to include fruit and or veggies in at least two out of the three meals I ate on the ship. The problem was I ate a rich dessert every night with countless pieces of French bread. Top pic: Tofu steak with Thai veggies. Bottom pic: tiramisu cake. This was not my cup of tea, but their melting chocolate cake was amazing!

Food:
Some of you may know I started eating clean towards the beginning of March. I lost a decent amount of weight (with exercise), but once I moved, that all went downhill and took my weight lost with it. I want to get back in the habit of eating clean and doing a detox/cleanse will jump start that process for me at the same time.

Last night on the ship. My hair was cute, but chucked full of products!

Hair:
Once I got back from the cruise, my hair was full of product build up like I had never experienced before. I used a mud cleanser and Brazilian butter treatment (both completely natural without fragrances) and my hair felt like it had come back to life. I'd like to only use all natural mud cleansers instead of shampoo and use products with all natural ingredients without fragrances for stylers. I'm also going to do protective styles during this 30 day detox. This is going to give my hair a break. I've been twisting and curling the heck out of it for a long time and it just needs to be left alone for awhile. I know my hair is like, "Damn, Chary! Can I live?"

The two all natural and fragrance free products that brought my hair back to life once I got back home. Review on these products are coming soon.

Like I said, I'll start all of this during the middle of May, but I wanted to get this post out now so you guys won't be blind sided with the change of videos you'd be seeing from me. This should be interesting to say the least. Have you ever done any kind of detox before? If you have any advice for me, I will gladly accept!

In Cozumel, Mexico. I'll post more pics from the cruise on my Facebook fan page soon.